John Cohen is coming home to Mississippi State to win a national championship. That was the message the former Bulldogs outfielder delivered to hundreds of fans who greeted him at news conferences in Starkville and Jackson on Saturday, a day after he resigned at Kentucky and took the job over the objection of former coach Ron Polk.

When the 20 Thoroughbreds running in the 134th Kentucky Derby enter the track at Churchill Downs on Saturday, one of the longest-running traditions in all of sports begins. The playing of a 155-year-old song, My Old Kentucky Home, by the University of Louisville Marching Band, is sure to evoke enough emotion to bring many in the crowd of more than 150,000 to tears.